Tirunelveli Halwa was in my to-do list for long time. I’m not sure if i have tried this before. But whenever i go to Madurai, we never forget to try halwa from the shop which is nearby Madurai Railway Station. I dont remember its name.

I had been asking my mom to get the recipe of tirunelveli halwa from her friend who is also from tirunelveli. Finally she got the recipe, but aunt told me to try halwa with maida(all purpose flour) as it is easy and later when i get confidence she asked me to try with wheat berries. With the help of mom, i tried wheat halwa first as i was waiting to try it for long time. My mom gave this stirring job to me which will surely test your patience. Anyhow, we succeeded in our mission 🙂 It will surely melt in your mouth. Lets check the recipe,

Clean and wash whole wheat properly. Soak it in enough water for 5-6 hrs. Drain the water completely. Divide wheat berries in batch.

Grind one batch of wheat in mixie adding 1 cup water. Strain the milk and again grind the husk adding 1 cup water. Repeat this process for other batch of wheat berries. I have used approx 6 cup water to grind whole wheat. Throw off the husk.

Transfer the strained wheat milk to a bowl. Cover it and let it ferment overnight. The next day, remove the top layer that has formed over milk carefully. Now you can see a thin layer of milk on top and thick layer deposited at the bottom. Mix both the layers of milk. Measure this milk. I got 6 cup of wheat milk.

Take a non-stick pan which would be better to stir halwa. Add 1 tbsp ghee and allow it to spread all over the sides of pan. Pour wheat milk and stir it with the help of a wooden flat ladle which will make your job easy.

Keep cooking on low flame. Lumps will starts forming. Dont get panic like i did. Just keep on stirring and break the lumps. The milk will become thick in hardly 5-8 mins.

The next 50 mins is what will make you tired 🙂 Keep stirring the thick mass once in 3-5 mins. We dont want the bottom to get burnt so no other choice we have.

After 10 mins add sugar and stir well. The halwa may look cooked but it will still have raw wheat smell. So keep on stirring and add 1-2 tbsp ghee occasionally when you feel halwa is sticking to the sides of pan.

For me it took around 45-50 mins to reach halwa consistency, at this stage halwa starts leaving the sides of pan and ghee separates. When you take a tbsp of halwa, it should not stick and you should be able to roll it into ball. This is the correct stage to add broken cashews. Mix cashews with halwa and remove from the pan.

Note :

You can keep this halwa at room temp for 2-3 days as we have used more ghee. After that refrigerate it. If it becomes hard, then reheat it in oven or heat it on stove top for few mins.

Adding cashews or other nuts like pistachio, almonds is optional. You can also roast the nuts and add it.

I have not added any food color here. If you want to add, then try red, yellow or green.

Since i have used 6 cup of water to extract milk, i have added 6 cup sugar. But the amount of sugar is purely optional.